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Monday, October 30, 2000

Whitaker whizzes by

Warriors' WACky loss
UH Football Stats

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By Dave Reardon
Star-Bulletin

Deonce Whitaker was at his elusive best Saturday night, even on his last scramble across the length of the Aloha Stadium turf -- the one for the bus that would take him to the airport.

The normally talkative Whitaker didn't have much to say as he sprint-walked the first leg of the way to San Jose; he obeyed a Spartans' assistant who told him not to answer any more questions.

Turns out he was the only one who could contain Whitaker all night.

That left it to the defenders -- the ones who allowed him 305 yards rushing and receiving and three touchdowns as San Jose State beat Hawaii, 57-48 -- to do the explaining.

Whitaker's 278 yards on the ground were 16 less than TCU's LaDainian Tomlinson generated against UH three weeks ago. But some Warriors said Whitaker's the better runner.

"He's the best I've played against. He's better than Tomlinson. He's smaller, shorter, but faster. Fast, and he could juke," Hawaii defensive end Chris Brown said. "And he's not scared to take it up the middle."

Whitaker is only 5-feet-6 and 185 pounds. He drew praise from another guy who plays bigger than his size.

"It was just hard running. Give that kid credit," UH safety Nate Jackson said. "He's very strong, very slippery. You can only do so much. If you hit him, wrap him up, you don't always get him. He was hard to tackle one-on-one."

Linebacker Anthony Smith was less charitable.

"It was about 40 percent him and about 60 percent us," Smith said. "Don't get me wrong, he's good. But it's hard to make plays when you're out of position like we were a lot of times. And when you are in position, it comes down to making the tackle. We didn't do that."

Whitaker gained 213 of his rushing yards after halftime, a fact lost in UH's flurry of touchdown passes in its 42-point second half.

But with Whitaker running amok, leaving black-clad defenders strewn on the turf, it wasn't enough.

"We had the momentum for awhile, but it came down to four or five plays we needed to win the game," Jackson said.

It went unsaid that those plays involved Deonce Whitaker.

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Conference standings

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	Overall				Conference
	W	L	T	PCT.	W	L	T	PCT.	PF	PA
Texas-El Paso	6	2	0	.750	5	0	0	1.000	186	77
Texas Christian	7	0	0	1.000	4	0	0	1.000	136	34
San Jose St.	6	3	0	.667	4	1	0	.800	200	151
Fresno St.	4	3	0	.571	3	1	0	.750	132	80
Tulsa	3	6	0	.333	2	3	0	.400	69	121
Southern Methodist	2	6	0	.250	1	3	0	.250	66	109
Rice	2	6	0	.250	1	4	0	.200	94	129
Hawaii	1	6	0	.143	1	5	0	.167	133	214
Nevada	1	7	0	.125	0	4	0	.000	68	169

Last week's results
San Jose St. 57, Hawaii 48
Southern Methodist 21, Nevada 7
Texas Christian 37, Rice 0
Fresno St. 34, Tulsa 12

Coming up Saturday
Hawaii at Fresno St.
Texas-El Paso at Nevada
Texas Christian at San Jose St.
Southern Methodist at Rice

Season statistics

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TEAM

	Hawaii	Opp
FIRST DOWNS	134	148
Rushing	20	88
Passing	104	44
Penalty	10	16
RUSHING YARDAGE	389	1553
Yards gained rushing	514	1736
Yards lost rushing	125	183
Rushing Attempts	125	373
Average Per Rush	3.1	4.2
Average Per Game	55.6	221.9
TD’s Rushing	5	17
PASSING YARDAGE	2190	926
Att-Comp-Int	363-179-14	156-84-3
Average Per Pass	6.0	7.4
Average Per Catch	12.3	13.7
Average Per Game	312.9	164.7
TDs Passing	14	10
TOTAL OFFENSE	2579	2706
Total Plays	488	529
Average Per Play	5.3	5.1
Average Per Game	368.4	386.6
KICK RETURNS
No.-Yards	34-605	24-437
PUNT RETURNS
No.-Yards	20-198	15-137
INT RETURNS
No.-Yards	3-38	14-290
FUMBLES-LOST	15-7	13-7
PENALTIES-YARDS	78-561	53-400
PUNTS-AVG	42-36.6	34-38.5
TIME OF POSS.	24:47	35:13
3RD DOWN CONV.	36/108	46/111
4TH DOWN CONV.	8/18	5/10

RUSHING

	Att.	Yds.	TD	Long
Fenderson	31	173	1	25
Weaver	30	116	1	15
Thompson	29	103	0	18
Mitchell	6	43	1	26
Rolovich	6	14	0	18
Grant	5	13	0	9
Tinoisamoa	1	0	0	0
Stutzmann	1	-2	0	0
Team	2	-3	0	0
Harris	1	-11	0	0
Berryman	1	-11	0	0
Chang	11	-20	2	5
Liana	1	-26	0	0

RECEIVING

	No.	Yds.	TD	Long
Lelie	39	599	6	51
Colbert	36	502	2	74
Stutzmann	31	408	4	47
Harris	23	303	2	58
Fenderson	15	47	0	13
Weaver	13	122	0	18
Welch	9	85	0	16
deLaura	5	66	0	26
Thompson	4	36	0	17
Mitchell	2	13	0	7
Grant	1	9	0	9

PASSING

	Att.	Comp.	Int.	Yds.	TD
Chang	268	140	12	1653	10
Rolovich	92	37	2	518	4

PUNTING

	No.	Yds.	Avg.	Long
Berryman	22	795	36.1	65
Thompson	1	17	0	17
McBriar	14	547	39.1	63

TACKLES

	UT	AT	TT
Espiau	54	24	78
Brooks	47	19	66
Jackson	31	28	59
Kemfort	28	25	53
Armstrong	27	14	41
Smith	20	15	35
Tinoisamoa	27	8	35
Brown	26	8	34
Correa	16	9	25
Fuga	18	6	24
Iosua	13	11	24
Peters	14	10	24
Garner	14	9	23
Liana	11	10	21
Tucker	20	1	21
Sims	14	5	19
Miller	11	3	14
Dietschy	10	0	10
Ala	7	2	9
Alapa	4	2	6
Avila	5	1	6
Butts	2	4	6
Clowers	3	3	6
Samuseva	2	4	6
Williams	4	0	4
Correia	1	2	3
Fenderson	3	0	3
Berryman	2	0	2
deLaura	2	0	2
Campbell	2	0	2
Gilmore	1	1	2
Grant	2	0	2
Ala	1	0	1
Kauka	0	1	1
Riccardi	1	0	1
Thompson	1	0	1
Welch	1	0	1
Wright	1	0	1

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UH Athletics
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